UNESCO organised an international conference ‘Groundwater - Key to the Sustainable Development Goals' in Paris, France from May 18 - 20, 2022. Biome Environmental Trust registered for this conference and submitted the following abstract on the Million Wells campaign.
The abstract was accepted as a poster entry that Biome submitted and was presented online on May 19, 2022, by Shubha Ramachandran.
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A tree planting and sapling distribution program was organised by the Arohana Grameenabhivruddhi Samste at Pichhaguntlahalli Village at OMittur Panchayat in the Kolar district in collaboration with Biome Environmental Trust on June 18, 2022, on the occasion of World Environment Day, 2022. During this program, mango, pomegranate, jamoon, amla, and jackfruit saplings were distributed to 38 women for their home gardens, and around 750 saplings were planted. These saplings were contributed by IOCL. The program was attended by IOCL officials, Mr S Vishwanath of Biome Environmental Trust, and Ms Asha S of Arohana Grameenabhivruddhi Samste.
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Lalbagh is a 240 acres Botanical garden located in south Bengaluru. The Lalbagh lake (within the park) spreads over about 30 acres and is full of water for most of the year. The groundwater tables have been observed to be high in many parts of the park.
Location of Lalbagh
Map of 4 Rejuvenated Wells and 2 existing Open Wells in Lalbagh
There are 6 open wells in Lalbagh. 4 have been rejuvenated between March 2021 and March 2022.
This report documents the status and process of rejuvenation of Step Well 4
Rejuvenation of Step Well 4
An old Step well close to the west gate was taken up for rejuvenation after getting the necessary permission. The well is 25ft in diameter and 30ft in depth. There was about 10ft of water in the well. As there are a lot of trees around the well the water in the well had a lot of organic matter. To clean the well, the water had to be pumped out and organic matter and silt had to be removed.
Puravankara group came forward to help rejuvenate the well. Well-digger Ramakrishna and his team started working on the well to rejuvenate it in the month of February 2022. Water and silt from the well was removed. After cleaning, the well recuperated in a few days.
Well after cleaning: well diggers and biome team
To prevent leaf falling into the well a safety net and a shade net was installed on the well. This helps keep the water clean. The net was fixed 2 ft above the well. The safety net was fixed with S-hook for easy maintenance. The well had about 111KL water in February 2022 and can hold upto 416KL.
Safety net being fixed
Shade net fixed over safety net
S-hook used to fix the shade net
Water in the well after fixing the net
Link to the report
Library Well
https://biometrust.blogspot.com/2022/03/rejuvenation-of-library-well-at-lalbagh.html
Well 1 and 2
https://biometrust.blogspot.com/2021/06/lalbagh-open-well-rejuvenation-lalbagh.html
Open wells help manage the shallow aquifer by being structures that can both draw water from the shallow aquifer as well as serve as structures that can recharge the ground. Open wells with water are also the source of water with the lowest amount of energy required to source the water. More details about Bangalore and its open wells can be found here
http://bengaluru.urbanwaters.in/our-open-well-heritage-510/
